2Decisions
by Hardwing
Summary: Deborah fullfills her oath, much to Demona's indisposition....


2.Decisions  
  
21.07.98. 15:34. Berlin New Nightstone Headquarters  
  
The feared owner of Nightstone Unlimited sat in her chair and smiled. The present people trembled at this smile, as Dominique Destine never smiled when she was happy, so the employees of her company believed. She only smiled when she found a mistake, when she could slam someone. The pitiable victim was this time, a so called Firm lord, who at that moment would have gladly switch shoes with that of an errand boy, if he would not have to stand in the field of vision of his boss.  
  
"So you have lost the Katora business to Cyberbiotics?" She asked, icily and calmly, as her green eyes glittered.  
  
"I am sorry Miss Destine." The Firm lord apologized and tried not to wriggle under the look of his boss. He failed.  
  
"I am not interested in your apologizes!" Dominique hissed at her employee and he seemed to shrink into his chair even more than he already was. Nobody wanted to attract the attention of their boss, as the two were practically alone.  
  
"Must I declare again what meaning this region has to this company?"  
  
The lord shook his head, he knew, but she let her eyes focus on him. "Should this happen again, you will have to look for a job with help of the newspaper. For the first time though, I will be content with cutting one of your month wages, I hope you will appreciate this."  
  
The pale lord nodded. "Thank you Madame, you will not regret this.  
  
She kept him focused in her icy view "I hope so... for your sake!"  
  
She still kept her eye on him, as he left then she looked on the clock, which read 15:42. Soon Xanatos' envoy would come with whom he wanted to clear some topics, which had resulted from the new business situation. "That will be all for today." Dominique declared, as if she would not have used this as a reason for criticism.  
  
All the Lords breathed out now that the Inquisition, how it was secretly called by them, was over for this time.  
  
"I will work myself through your reports and hope that at least the rest of you have worked to my satisfaction." She removed herself, to the joy of all those present, out of the meeting room.  
  
21.07.98. 15:49. Berlin Street, in front of the New Nightstone Headquarters  
  
Dominique stood at the entrance of her company and waited for the envoy of Xanacorps  
  
~Miss Camerline~. She smiled, as she thought of her new found position.  
  
Four months ago. Nightstone had been equals with Xanacorps and now, two months later, Nightstone had outstripped Xanacorps by value and profit. This was quite a source of joy and satisfaction to her, not that she showed this to one of her employees or had shown more mercy to them. But when she had read the newspaper articles, which already celebrated her as the most powerful woman in the world, she had opened a bottle of wine to celebrate alone.  
  
Despite her usual view on alcohol, she had celebrated her victory, to which she had achieved, because she had stopped trying to waste her power for the destruction of mankind and merely concentrated in exploiting them.  
  
Back in the present, Dominique discovered a Limousine driving along the street. ~Finally~ she could have left this to someone else, but she preferred to do it on her own. Doubtless that Xanatos who, because of his family, did not have the time, like she had, for his company and wanted to tread about a truce because she had caused him a lot of trouble and he had already lost some market to her.  
  
With her business politic, especially against her employees, she had caused some irritation with the German unions. But some small presents to their leaders and some little talks to the politicians, who indeed were very happy that Nightstone had chosen their capital for its headquarters, as it was still recovering from the Second World War and the Socialists. Hence, they removed any and all of their doubts about her.  
  
~It is amazing how little union leaders in Germany care for the sorrows of their workers when they take long holidays in Mallorca~.  
  
The limousine stopped, the door opened and the envoy stepped out. She had blond hair, which was made into a mob at the back like Dominique's and wore a business dress, which was so expensive like Dominique's, but ever so hard. Surrounding her was the same quiet authority like Dominique's and her eyes looked on in the same way with dignity.  
  
"You're late Miss Camerline." Dominique greeted, but could not shake the feeling that she knew this woman from somewhere.  
  
Camerline studied Dominique quietly and then she nodded. "Indeed Miss Destine," she answered, "I ran into some traffic on my way here... I so dislike delays."  
  
Dominique nodded as a sign that she accepted this, what she would never had done by one of her own employees and showed her, with her hand, to the entrance. "Would you follow me please? We can speak about everything inside."  
  
Camerline nodded and walked aside Dominique, who again had the strange feeling that she knew this woman?  
  
They went silent to the lift and Dominique did not pay any attention to the security personal, which practically bowed her. In the lift, Dominique discovered that Camerline seemed to size her up when she thought she wasn't looking at her. She decided not to mention this because she had also sized Camerline up herself. ~Somewhere, I have met this human already! ~ Then she gave it up ~she is just another human nobody. ~  
  
21.07.98. 16:13. Berlin, Nightstone Headquarters office of Dominique Destine  
  
Camerline entered the private office of Dominique Destine and was impressed. Her desk and chair stood with the back to the window, which was placed so that you had to look right into the sun if you wanted to see Dominique. This sure gave her an illusion of grandeur, a grandeur which Dominique was not entitled to have, Camerline thought.  
  
"Shall we sit down?" Dominique asked politely and Camerline nodded.  
  
When she went to the desk, some pictures attracted Camerline's attention, all if which were expensive works of art, as much as she could judge. ~Expensive trash~ she thought bitterly ~I expected a better taste of her~.  
  
They sat down, "now, we should not waste time." Dominique started "what does Xanatos want?"  
  
Camerline looked calmly at her and simply said "nothing."  
  
Dominique looked at her, confused for a second and then her eyes dwindled into slits. "Nothing?" She responded, coolly. "Then why waste my time?"  
  
Camerline smiled icily at this little attack. "He does not want anything of you Demona." She answered her stunned opposite "but I and others do."  
  
"Who are you?" Dominique asked sharply, her suspicion had condensed into security when she answered coolly, but her voice still used intonation.  
  
Camerline answered "oh really, you have to suffer at forgetfulness too. First you forget everything I taught you and your brothers and sisters and then you do not even recognize me." Deborah explained in an intonation, which barely covered her anger. "I am really very disappointed in you lassie." She declared honestly and saw with satisfaction, how Demona more than winced.  
  
"Teacher" Demona said and tried, without success, to cover the surprise in her voice with coldness. ~How could I be so blind? ~ She cursed herself ~I knew she would not let me get away so easily and it was clear that Puck would help her~. "Nice outfit, a present of Puck I assume?"  
  
Deborah smiled icily. "Yes, it is temporary and not permanent like you," she explained in a nearly conversational tone, "but do not change the subject."  
  
"Well teacher..." Demona, who had calmed herself already, asked "what led you here?" Deborah looked into Demona's eyes and her eyes sparkled.  
  
"I am called Deborah now! My mate gave me this name in the night of the large Reawakening, as it is called by all now."  
  
"Deborah...."  
  
Demona thought over it. She knew the name and she knew the meaning of it. "Hudson should not read the Bible" she said "I think one biblical name in the clan is enough."  
  
"Better than Demona... Redhead," Deborah responded "although your name seems to be fitting for you." This had Demona wincing and reminded her that her former Mentor knew everything now.  
  
"What do you want?" She asked icily and hard, upon which Deborah just smiled bitterly. ~She has the nerve to talk to me so? ~ She thought angrily ~just wait little one. ~  
  
"How I said already, you Demona...." she explained calmly, too calm, "but this place and our shapes are unfitting... how would it be so at 22:00 at your place?"  
  
Demona shuddered. She was definitely not interested in a talk with her old Mentor because she knew what the topic was going to be, but she didn't have any choice, even this she knew. So she nodded and said "I live..."  
  
"I know where you live Demona." Deborah interrupted her harshly, during which she stood up and went to the door. "Oh and do not come onto the glorious idea to run away again like seven months before," Deborah explained when she stood at the door and looked back at the slightly daunted Demona, "I would find you anywhere and it would definitely not better my mood."  
  
With these words, Deborah left the room with Demona still looking at the door for some time even after she had left. She did not even notice that her fingernails had scraped the wood of her chair.  
  
21.07.98. 21:57. Destine Mansion in Potsdam  
  
The mansion, in which Demona now lived in, was just as dark and unfriendly like the one she had lived in New York. It was just that this one was in Potsdam, a traditional living place for rich Berliners.  
  
The owner walked un-quietly about its interior, up and down. She was so nervous like she had not been for centuries and felt herself... ~stop this! ~ She admonished herself strictly ~you are an experienced warrior. Surely more than she is and are even so much older than she will ever be and no hatchling anymore who has to defend herself to an elder!~. But she felt so...  
  
Deborah had been her teacher, her mentor until her death. She had not chosen her as one of the three gargoyles that she had brought back with magic, just because she was Hudson's mate. Besides her, she had also brought back Valejan, as well as his mate so that he would not be alone.... Valejan.  
  
Demona glared into the fire of her chimney and thought back. She had told him, after she brought the part of his clan back, everything. He had been shocked, but not angry like she feared the first time and had indeed offered her a place in his clan, which Demona indeed rejected. ~Do not let that divert you now. ~  
  
There was a knock at the French window and Demona knew that the night, she had been secretly forever fearing was there. "The door is open." She called without looking around and she instantly heard the door open and then close again followed by the sound of footsteps... claw steps that seemed to be coming near her.  
  
~Behind you~ she admonished herself and commanded her body, which did not really want to obey, to turn around. ~There is no use in delaying it now any more~.  
  
Demona turned around and looked at her old teacher, eye to eye.  
  
"Deborah" she greeted shortly, but Deborah did not even make herself, the trouble to answer this half hearted greeting, but was busy studying the room.  
  
It was not decorated with the same useless trash like Demona's office, but was simple and surely more unfriendly and dark like her old home back in New York, which Deborah had examined. At the walls hung weapons, a sword and a morning star, crossed beyond a coat of arms... Wyvern's coat of arms, Deborah discovered with light surprise.  
  
~Why? ~.  
  
Her former pupil studied her quietly. She had last seen her 1028 years in the past and back then, she had indeed been a lot smaller than her former teacher, now she nearly towered above her. Not that this helped...  
  
Demona had seen her shortly when she took Deborah with the Phoenix Gate, but did not have any time to study her more exactly. Deborah's blond hair, which was parted by a group of blunt horns, looked even wilder than she remembered and her green coloured skin looked more shining. She still wore her old armour in which she looked like a war ready soldier and the now strengthened the hostile impression.  
  
Deborah's eyes finally focused back to her former pupil.  
  
"Do you want to sit down?" Asked Demona, who was growing more nervous from second to second, as she showed Deborah the armchairs at the chimney.  
  
Deborah studied her shortly. "No, I speak about this standing, like you know..." Demona knew it from her last lecture, which she got before she had ascended to a warrior that Deborah criticized nearly everything of her. After she and her brother were late to the training, she had stood even so. ~And now I stand again~ Demona thought, nearly anxiously and took posture. ~How she taught it to us... stand upright. ~  
  
Deborah studied her now grown up former pupil, how she trained her over 1000 years ago. ~A beautiful lassie indeed~ she thought ~how my mate said in those days~.  
  
"You have not changed." Demona noticed.  
  
Deborah looked at her "You have... in many ways."  
  
Demona was silent.  
  
"Now explain yourself." Deborah demanded in a dangerous tone and Demona was unable to look at her in the eyes when she answered.  
  
"On what do you relate on?" It was quiet in the room for a moment and Deborah looked at her in the eye, and she realised that this was definitely not the best of all answers.  
  
Deborah saw this exactly so. "So, you really are so large the coward that I assumed you are."  
  
This hit Demona like a slap in the face and she winced lightly. "But if we have to do it this way... so be it." Deborah explained and viewed at her disparaging. "You betrayed the castle to the Vikings, this resulted in the death of the clan except for six..."  
  
"Actually they seem very living." Demona interrupted her.  
  
"Interrupt me never again!" Deborah snarled at her, her eyes burned red like hellfire and again Demona winced, a so violent reaction that she had not expected. "You had betrayed the humans and when it was too hot for you, you simple ran away and left the clan to its fate, which was as you knew, death. With this, you even so betrayed him, worse it was as if you had personally swung the morning star." Her eyes were now permanently red when she studied Demona's unmoved face.  
  
"Then, when you found the clan destroyed with the exception of six survivors, what did you? Instead of facing them and helping them to hunt the bastards, what did you? You flew like a dog just to come back later with any story. Your high-handedness destroyed an alliance I gave my life for!"  
  
Demona looked Deborah deep in her eyes and light anger flared up in her "it was no more an alliance than what you gave your life for. They treated their dogs better than us. They did not deserve our protection."  
  
Deborah stayed calm, icy. "Oh and I assume you had to determine this? Even if it was bad under Katharine's rule, was it better than to be smashed by the Vikings?"  
  
Demona kept silent and finally Deborah continued "Hardly."  
  
"Then, when even this plan failed... because Goliath had let himself be spelled to sleep and you saw, and I know you saw, how the Princess, the Magus and Tom took the eggs on their wagons, what did you?" This was a question that Demona seemed to be forced to answer, even if it was one of the most unpleasant moments in her whole 1000 years long life.  
  
"I watched" she admitted. "What should I do other than this?" She defended herself "I was alone!"  
  
This left Deborah unimpressed. "Tell me, what did you think they would do with the eggs?"  
  
Demona looked at Deborah, by a supreme effort, in the eyes as she knew every lie would be revealed by her teacher's eyes. "I thought," she declared with a dry throat "that they would take them with them as provisions for their journey." Deborah's view stayed hard, but underneath it, Demona saw it flashing. She had never told this part of the story to anybody, not even to Angela when she was prisoner in the labyrinth.  
  
"A-ha..." Deborah responded icily. She had thought so, but hearing it from Demona's mouth made it seem much more real.  
  
"I could not have done anything," Demona desperately tried to defend herself, "how could I alone have supplied for 36 eggs and later 36 hatchlings?"  
  
Deborah shook her head "and instead of saving a few! You left them all to, what you thought, was a deadly fate?" She asked bitterly "oh yes, this is so much better." The eyes of both warriors met and Demona had trouble to exile the dampness out of her eyes. She did not want to cry because she knew it would not bring anything. ~No weakness...~ Deborah kept her view. "You had condemned the clan to death, him and his future," Deborah explained, "what say you to this?"  
  
Demona did not answer, she just looked at her. Deborah went to the wall, took the broadsword and studied it. It seemed to be nearly as old as its owner. "Well?" She asked anew and looked at her former pupil again.  
  
She did not respond and just looked at her out of her old, deep green eyes.  
  
"Defend yourself!" Deborah screamed and simultaneously threw the Broadsword at her. Fortunately, thanks to her life, Demona had much better reflexes than her teacher expected and smacked the sword in the air beside so that it harmlessly crashed against the wall.  
  
"Your reflexes have improved," Deborah observed angrily "while everything other, which should define a gargoyle, became stunted."  
  
Demona returned her view, now likewise with red glowing eyes. "Yes, I survived" she snarled "because I never trust anyone, which I have good reasons to, which you surely know now. As you sure know I have saved some of our race, whose clans were destroyed by the humans they protected in this way."  
  
Deborah's eyes sparked at her "oh yes, they have told it. You had let them scrape a life as thieves, had Roland inspired you?" Deborah asked as an allusion to Demona's fallen Rockery brother.  
  
"They survived that way," Demona answered, unwilling to speak about Roland, "that was all that counted."  
  
"Oh yes?" Deborah asked angrily "you really have forgotten everything I taught you... we protect. Without this, we are empty and corrupted like you are!"  
  
"You can make a chorus with Goliath old mentor." Demona remarked cynically. "Always the same old story let us protect the humans, let us protect the creatures, which over and over again treat us like mud."  
  
Deborah shook her head. "And what did you do?" She asked "you degraded them to thieves, took their honour and denied them our nature."  
  
"I saved them." Demona defended herself "the humans are no race to be trusted." She claimed.  
  
"But in the end, you had allied yourself with one of them."  
  
Demona smiled, tired, "with Macbeth yes..." she explained "and even he betrayed me."  
  
"You say so." Deborah responded "he say something other."  
  
Demona shook her head and snarled "he lies."  
  
"Oh yes?" Deborah asked "so there is your word against his." Deborah noticed. "He became a loyal ally of the clan and has proved this already. You against..." She looked at Demona and in her eyes was nothing but contempt. "You are a traitor, you proofed this in Wyvern and you betrayed Moray and in doing so handed over your clan and Macbeth's kingdom to death."  
  
That, Demona had not accepted. "He wanted to betray me! I had no choice. I had to ally myself with the Hunter!"  
  
"Hah... The Hunters!" Deborah picked up "one more example of your behaviour. How many clans have fallen from those who wore a mask signed with scars by your claws?"  
  
Demona glared at her "I am not responsible for the Hunters' deeds."  
  
Deborah shook her head. "Yes you are" Deborah responded "stand for this because you know the truth."  
  
Demona shook her head and looked defiant. "I will not load the deeds of this family on me. The only thing I regret is that I did not kill Canmore when he was still a child and I had the opportunity to do so."  
  
Deborah cynically smiled, in a nearly perfect imitation of Demona's smile "yes, killing a child is perhaps the only thing I have not discovered in your long list of misdeeds... until now."  
  
Demona looked at her, but did not respond.  
  
"I have to say that I have not just travelled to Europe to meet you, although it was my main reason. I contacted the other clans in the name of my clan. In Edinburgh, the Isle of Eye, Myrkor Woods, London, Paris...Oh yes Paris..." Deborah studied Demona again with eyes, which showed contempt. "Valejan spoke in the highest of voices of you, the Belle Dame. What I, with view on his history, can not understand. He saved you from a mob, picked you up and you handed him and his clan over to death."  
  
"This is not true!" Demona snarled and dangerously approached Deborah's face. A strain of red hair fell over her left, hellish red gleaming eye. "I hadn't anything to do with their deaths."  
  
"So?" Deborah asked, more than doubting "then tell me you, sorceress" she spit out this word with unbelievable contempt "why had you not told them from the beginning that you could handle magic? Why had you not used the praying Gargoyle and so made the world safe for all Gargoyles, instead of misusing it 200 years later for your own goals."  
  
Demona glared at her angrily "I did not tell it because I knew how... tolerant, my old clan was with magic." Deborah glared back and approached, as a countermove on her, until their faces were both just 30 centimetres away from each other.  
  
"Oh really?" Deborah asked critically "interesting point! I heard from my mate that you took secret lessons from the Archmage back when... tell me how long already? Did it start before the Ascending when your fighting skills improved spontaneously?"  
  
Demona looked at her a moment and than started to laugh "Ha, ha, ha. Right, but if you think that I improved my skills in the art of war with the help of magic, then you are wrong."  
  
Deborah looked on her former pupil, nearly sad, and asked her "what then? What had he offered to you that you sold yourself to him?"  
  
Demona looked at her former teacher and explained calmly, but with a bit of regret in her voice. "It was shortly after my brother and I did not come in time to the training," she started "you remember?" Deborah nodded, for her it was less than a year ago that she lectured her very hard about duties and now she wished she would have done it harder and added some points about loyalties. "It was the evening after I had the little...accident, with the English envoy. I read a book Brother Edmund gave me to school my Latin knowledge. A man entered the room and accused me of thievery. He would have gone before Prince Malcolm, but the Archmage interfered and chased him away. On this way, we came to talk and he offered to teach me in Latin, privately and secretly... and he offered me books, books over the art of war... I must say Hannibal and Alexander were very inspiring for me."  
  
Deborah studied her former pupil and, for Demona's anger, she looked more than disappointed. She looked as if she would have pity on her. "Then he poisoned your mind this way."  
  
"He had poisoned nothing!" Demona snarled angrily, she had known that her mentor would not understand, today and over 1000 years before. "He gave me books to read, simple books about wars and the art of war, no poison."  
  
Deborah shook her head ~Too sad that I did not notice anything back then~ she thought and then spoke out-loud "this kind of nature is the worst, the which you do not notice."  
  
Demona shook her head, ~she cannot understand~ "You can not say anything to this, and you know neither books nor magic."  
  
Deborah glared at her, at her criticism. "I have, thanks to my mate, learned some growing abilities in the art of reading and writing. Magic, I can cut out. Now how had you become his apprentice in magic? Or had you been this from your first day?"  
  
Demona shook her head. "No," she confessed "after some time, exactly after the little game with the flags, he told me that he could not teach me any longer because he needed someone with magical potential, a potential I did not have, or so he assumed. So I told him..."  
  
Demona stopped.  
  
"What?" Deborah asked and suspected something. When Demona kept quiet, she added "come child, 1000 years have past and it can hardly be any better than what I know already."  
  
Demona looked at her in surprise ~she called me child~ she realized and to her surprise, it felt good in some way. "I was early fascinated in magic" she admitted, "I was interested when Brother Edmund told us the story about Circe who changed Odyseussy's men into animals."  
  
Deborah looked at her, disbelieving. ~I knew that Brother Edmund had not taught them anything good. ~  
  
"So one night, I sneaked into the room of the Archmage and examined his books. Then, simple because of curiosity, I carried out a ritual. I had success, but then I had fear and threw it in the ocean..."  
  
Suddenly Deborah's suspicion condensed to confirmation, "you were the one who summoned the creature, the Nucklavee!" She realized, amazed and Demona nodded ashamed.  
  
"I did not want to summon anything dangerous really..." She stopped as, for a moment, she had sounded like a hatchling, which desperately wanted to defend herself. "Well, then I told it to him," she explained with more dignity "and he offered to teach me in magic, what he did until 975."  
  
Deborah shook her head, she knew the end of the story, and how Demona stole the Phoenix Gate. ~She stole a lot~ Deborah thought bitterly ~I know no Gargoyle who was such a good thief~ and how her mate had to protect her from the Archmage. "I hope you know that he had tricked you?" She asked and was similarly shocked by how naive her pupil had been. "He must have known it that you summoned this thing, this is the reason he helped you, because of this he taught you magic."  
  
Demona looked at her "I know it... now."  
  
Deborah looked into Demona's eyes "would you have told it to me then?"  
  
Demona looked at the ground like she had the first time of the talk. "First I wanted to, but..."  
  
"But what?" Deborah asked calmly, but with a power in her voice, which Demona had always admired and still did, if only it wasn't directed against her. "But I was scared." She answered under great trouble. "He told me that the Prince had ordered to kill the one who summoned the creature..."  
  
"The clan would never have allowed this." Deborah interrupted her harshly. "You should have known this."  
  
~Did she really think we would have allowed that? ~ Deborah thought, shocked.  
  
"Yes but then..." Demona bit her tongue, she had shut herself.  
  
"What then?" Deborah asked ~How large was her register already then? ~ Demona looked in Deborah's eyes.  
  
"I had not told the Archmage at once about my former experience in magic," she admitted "it was first after..." She swallowed, shortly before looking into the unyielding eyes of her old mentor and had to control herself not to scrape with her food claws on the ground.  
  
"How I told you, the Archmage refused to teach me further because I had no magical potential. But because I could not tell him of my former experience with magic, without bringing myself in trouble, I chose another way... One night, the night after he told it to me, I discovered that the door to the Archmage's chamber was open. So I entered to speak a spell and to prove to him my magical talent without a need to tell him about my former experience in magic. I worked a spell..." She swallowed in memory of the shock "it was the Midasspell, which changed everything aimed into gold. Unfortunately at this moment, one of the hatchlings, Brooklyn, passed the door and was changed into gold."  
  
Deborah looked at her "he is at the moment a living and, how I discovered to my enjoyment, loyal second in command. So I assume you could change him back."  
  
Demona shook her head, ~she takes it so easily~ "not I," she admitted "the Archmage came back and changed him. In return, out of gratitude and... Out of fear that he might talk, I became his apprentice."  
  
Deborah shook her head and had to control herself to not laugh out loud. "He fooled you again you know?" When Demona just stared at her, she shook her head "how large is the possibility that he left his chamber open, with the Midasspell open on his desk, that just at the moment that you spoke the spell, Brooklyn strolled in front of the door? And that shortly after, the Archmage came to... help you? Such accidents are they?"  
  
Demona thought about it. "I had not thought about this a lot, but when you say it now... yes, you are right. He fooled me again." She looked at her former teacher, who had taught her again. "But even if I would have known it, it would not have helped me much. I was in his hand. If it had become worst, whom would they have believed? The Archmage... Or a young Gargoyle who had already summoned the Nuckelavee and changed a hatchling into gold?"  
  
Deborah looked deep into Demona's eyes, in the soul that she had founded, "I would have believed you" she declared calmly.  
  
Demona looked at Deborah and knew she spoke the truth and this hurt her deeply. Finally she shrugged her shoulders "it does not matter anymore. It is past, already for an eternity."  
  
Deborah shook her head "Indeed, for me less than a year has passed." Demona looked at her tiredly, than Deborah took the word again.  
  
"But now, onto something more recent for you if you like" her tone made it clear that Demona definitely did not have the choice. "It is about your betrayal, your second betrayal against your clan."  
  
Demona wanted to interrupt her, to say that it was not her clan anymore, but Deborah's look taught her that it would be better to be silent.  
  
"You achieved to wake them up. A fantastic eon if you think about the condition of the spell." Demona looked at her ~Now it comes.~ "But then, instead of showing courage and telling them the truth, you made the clan into thieves by letting them attack a company and stealing some discs, which were not Xanatos's own."  
  
"You can not dismantle a castle, transport it across the Atlantic and then rebuild it on a skyscraper without a certain price... this was the price they had to pay for their reawakening." Demona defended herself angrily and with a power that she did not know she had.  
  
"And you could not have told them this exactly so?" Deborah asked gravely and Demona gave a laugh. "Ha, Goliath... he would not have understood because we have to protect the humans and it would be wrong."  
  
Deborah shook her head. ~can't or doesn't want to understand? ~ "It was wrong and nobody from the clan would have agreed."  
  
Demona shrugged her shoulders. "It was necessary to hold my alliance with Xanatos."  
  
Deborah smiled bitterly. "So you had set your alliance with this human over the merits of the clan." she noticed cynically. "You used them. And when you no longer found them worthy to help you, you let them be attacked by the robots... the Steel Clan."  
  
Demona shook her head "no, I thought that Xanatos's robots were useless... and then I made Goliath a proposal."  
  
Deborah looked angrily on her former pupil and did not even comment on Demona's last sentences "you attacked him... After all that you did to him, you dared to attack him." She shook her head at the thought of this impertinence of Demona "your mate!" Deborah cursed.  
  
Now Demona started to become angry "my guessed mate did not have anything other in his head than his humans," she declared with contempt. "Just he and the others were awakened from their 1000 year long sleep, of which they were cursed by the Magus and what did he do? He had nothing else to do, but starting anew to protect even those humans."  
  
Deborah shook her head. "I did not come here to discuss this. He was your leader and you had to follow." Deborah explained icily. "It did not matter that you betrayed the clan a second time, yes even attacked the clan. Just as the situation in Wyvern did not justify your first." She shook her head. "You wanted to kill your clan leader, but you should have begged on your knees that he'd forgive you, that the clan died through your claws. During the last three years, you fought against them and did everything evil, I can imagine. From using Brooklyn, up to desecrating the remains of your brothers and sisters, so that you could create something to fight against the clan. Were I to count your evil doings, I would stand here the whole night. You should have begged that he would take you back even if it would just be into the clan, instead of threatening his life."  
  
Demona clenched her claws with so much power that her fists bled.  
  
"And?" Deborah continued "what do you answer me on this."  
  
Demona shook her head "he stopped being my clan when he decided to see his only reason for existence in protecting humans."  
  
Deborah looked at her amused "oh yes," she noticed dryly "when you tried to kill the only human, the clan would call their friend, or kill the whole of humanity, and then they protected them."  
  
Demona smiled sarcastically "no, it was not just that and you know it. How long has it taken Goliath and the clan to start protecting the humans in New York? A week? A month? Not a year had past after the massacre for them and they started to protect this race, which in our long history had nothing other to do, but killing us." The last, she spoke out with the contempt she felt for Goliath.  
  
"We protect Demona." Deborah explained, as if it were the first time. "This is what we are, if we would not be Gargoyles, our life would not have any purpose."  
  
"But protecting humans... do you know how many clans have been destroyed by the humans they protected?"  
  
"And so you wanted to seal their death sentences on the night of the Hunter's Moon, removing billions of humans off the planet." Deborah noted.  
  
Demona's eyes narrowed into slits, "I was and am still convinced that the humans will destroy us, earlier or later, and so did what was necessary to save our race."  
  
Deborah shook her head at so much impertinence. "You presume yourself a lot to determine about the fate of one... two races." She noticed.  
  
"I have given up Deborah, like I wrote in my letter to Goliath; I do not care for both races anymore." Demona explained calmly. "When the other Gargoyles in the world want to submit themselves under the human again... shall they? They do not matter for me any more, the humans and my guessed race which, besides all that has happened, is unable to recognize the nature of humankind." She declared nearly cheerful "the clans do not mean anything to me any more, yours even so."  
  
Deborah studied her former pupil intensively and saw in her eyes that she spoke the truth. ~Oh yes make it easy for you. ~  
  
"Well unfortunately, my clan," Deborah explained calmly "you know I mean those whom you betrayed twice, are very interested in you. You shall come back with me to Manhattan and there submit yourself to the judgment of the clan leader."  
  
Demona inwardly groaned ~oh, so that is the reason she is here. ~  
  
"No." She said calmly.  
  
"What?" Deborah responded.  
  
"I do not admit to his authority."  
  
Deborah shook her head ~Disappointing and I thought hide and seek would be over. ~ "And what would be worthy, in your eyes, to judge over you?" Deborah asked sarcastically "a human court of justice perhaps?"  
  
Demona shook her head and laughed "that, even less than the first... I do not let myself be judged, neither through Goliath nor through another."  
  
Deborah looked at her angrily "You are and will forever stay a coward Demona!" She snarled "stop hiding, start taking responsibility for your deeds. You will come with me!" Her intonation didn't leave any doubt about how seriously she meant it, but even this she challenged.  
  
"No." Demona responded.... and so the fight started.  
  
Deborah leapt without warning on her former pupil, but she dodged her with the help of 1000 years of improved reflexes. She jumped to the right and turned in the air to have Deborah focused in her view.  
  
Deborah did not waste any time and so changed the direction in the air with help of her tail, so that she could leap again on Demona without having touched the ground for more than a second.  
  
Demona was surprised of how fast the reflexes of her former teacher were and a little overwhelmed of the power that held her upper arm against her neck, by pressing her with her right claw so fast and so powerfully against the wall that the back of her head crashed so hard against the stone wall that she could see stars for just one moment.  
  
"You are the butcher of Wyvern and Moray," Deborah snarled and her eyes, which had become the doors to hell, were now just a few centimetres away from Demona's face. "You are a traitor and a coward who would sooner doom her clan than to admit to her treachery. Then when you had the possible opportunity to repay at least something to the survivors of the clan, what did you? You betrayed them anew! You attacked your clan leader and nearly killed him and in doing so, you nearly killed my mate. And you have the nerve to not admit to the authority of the clan?"  
  
Demona glared at Deborah, who still gripped her hard, like iron, and then she felt herself become overwhelmed by her rage. With a scream of pure rage, which shook the windows in the house, she attacked with her right claw and hit Deborah's armour, on the stomach, with such energy, that it splintered.  
  
Deborah reeled, perplexed by the sudden mobilized power and taunted by the pains in her stomach; she stepped back and in doing so, freed Demona from her stranglehold. This, she used at once by landing a left hook to her chin, which took her off the ground and landed her very roughly, on her back. Deborah did not lose consciousness, but glared at Demona angrily and more than a bit surprised by the power her former pupil had revealed. ~Goliath told me not to attack her~ she thought ~but that she is so powerful...~ "You improved and maybe you are the better fighter," she spoke to her "but this does not give you the right to stay unjudged!" She still glared at her when standing up again.  
  
"I have lived more then 1000 years." Demona snarled above her and did not try to attack her any further. "In these 1000 years, I went through hell and I will not let you judge me by someone who does not understand these things."  
  
Deborah squatted now and glared at her former pupil with contempt, "you have made your own fate Demona, expect no pity from me."  
  
Demona started to laugh wildly and Deborah asked herself a second time if her former pupil had simply gone mad, an explanation that Brooklyn favoured, mad by the centuries of pain and isolation, but then she stopped laughing.  
  
"Pity? No! I want you to understand that I do not believe in your way, on what Goliath propagates, that we can... Have to live together with humanity..." she stared into Deborah's eyes "you know my reasons. I think delivering us to the humans means the death for our kind and the way he does, means slavery. I saw how far he went under Katharine's rule, how much he bowed to her... it was miserable. Him and the clan, all clans who follow him, I do not submit to and I will not let them judge me. Shall they all continue with it, revealing themselves to the humans and trust in them... hey! It worked so well the last 1000 years."  
  
Deborah studied her angrily.  
  
"I see I have wasted my time on you." She noted bitterly and Demona knew that she did not just mean her visit, but much more... "You have neither the courage, nor the maturity to face the clan." She stood up and went to the door, eyed suspiciously by Demona.  
  
"It is a miracle for me that you passed the tests and ascended in those days. You have the spiritual maturity of a hatchling, but not the feeling for responsibility like one of them." Deborah turned away from Demona and was half through the door when she stopped. "You disappoint me" she declared quietly, nearly inaudible, before she went through the door and vanished.  
  
Demona looked at the French door where Deborah had vanished. How long? She did not know and even so, could not say it later. Finally, she walked over and closed it, while looking simultaneously into the darkness, as if she hoped to see her teacher gliding away, which was naturally senseless. Finally she lay down on the couch and thought about it. From all the words that had fallen in this... conversation, the last sentence had hurt her the most. ~You disappoint me.~ She did not want to disappoint the clan... to disappoint her teacher whom she had always admired because of her strength.  
  
Suddenly memories flooded her head and she reminded, the night of the massacre and the night before... Again she saw how she made the bargain with the Captain, how she wanted to warn her caramel coloured skinned sister and her mate, but stopped it when she saw the Vikings nearing the castle.  
  
How she escaped when she discovered that all she had tried to stop from happening would finally happen and she could do nothing to stop this.  
  
How she came back and took the stone in the hand which was in fact the face of her brother and she was surrounded by the shattered remains of her clan, all looking on her...  
  
"Ahhhh" Demona screamed when the full power of this memories hit her...  
  
She felt tears on her cheeks but at the same time her eyes glared red like the hell. She looked at the vase before her, from China, Ming-dynasty and very, very expensive.  
  
She grabbed the vase and threw it against the wall, followed by a chair which landed in the fire of the chimney.  
  
She snarled angrily when she did not discover more things to let her anger out on, but then she collapsed against a wall.  
  
~yes I betrayed the humans in the castle and so even my clan!~ Demona admitted ~but I had a right to do this!~ Demona defended herself against Deborah in her head ~the humans under Katharine would never have accepted us, they would even have treated us worse!~  
  
~You disappoint me.~ Deborah's words repeated themselves to her. ~Perhaps I should go with her?~ She asked herself tired and then added ~and let myself be judged by Goliath?~  
  
"No!" She answered herself loudly. But suddenly, she felt something... Something that she had not felt for a long time. Demona thought about it, then sighed and made a decision ~it has to end~..."  
  
To be continued... 


End file.
